Yearbook 2011
Samoa. In the March elections, Prime Minister Tuila’epa Sailele Malielegaois’s ruling party HRPP (the Party for the Protection of Human Rights) resigned but still won and received 29 of Parliament’s 49 seats. The opposition party Tautua Samoa received 13 seats, while seven seats went to individual candidates who support the government. Visit ABBREVIATIONFINDER for the acronym of ASM that stands for the country of Samoa.
According to Countryaah official site, Rugby is Samoa’s national sport with a successful and very popular national team, Manu, named after a historic Samoan warrior. During the year, however, the team suffered a scandal when the World Cup game failed and the coach was accused of alcohol abuse during the tournament. He was dismissed, and by his hometown he was sentenced to 100 pigs in fines for dishonoring the village and its chief title.
This year’s big event in Samoa occurred in December, when the country switched time zone above the date limit. Samoa has been known as the last country on earth where the sun goes down, but now they chose to skip a day, Friday 30 December, and move forward to the same date as New Zealand and Australia. According to Prime Minister Tuila’epa Sailele Malielegaois, this would facilitate trade. By the old days, Samoa had lost two working days a week: Friday in Samoa was Saturday in New Zealand, and Sunday in the strictly church Samoa was Labor and Business Monday in New Zealand. Samoa’s tourism industry was against the change, saying that a unique marketing value was lost when Samoa’s sunset was no longer the last but the first on earth.